Our theme last week at Redwork Club was monograms.

Here’s a beautiful “M” to start us out.

Happy E brought these two “P” linens.  When we asked her why the “P” she said….

“Oh, these were Mrs. Fishers!”  Well, that cleared that up.

I believe this is teeny, tiny cross stitch.

Another “M”…

…and a pretty pink “H”

The white-on-white is very pretty and subtle.

I’m sure women weren’t supposed to draw attention to themselves!

One of our members had made this for her aunt.

And now for the “More.”

Cortne’ had recently been given this 1930′s postage stamp quilt.

It was a feast of fabrics!

Loretta finished her Flower Basket quilt top.

She decided to do her butterflies in gold floss.

I think it turned out great!

And I just had to share with you the labels that Linda puts on her quilts.

These are hand embroidered.

She does an amazing job!

Our show-and-tell at Redwork recently was Dish Towels.  I especially love the days-of-the-week themes.

I believe this pattern is by Grace Drayton, who also drew the Campbell Soup kids.

I love the expression on the face of this little Dutch girl.

I’m not sure she’s cut out for housekeeping!

Melinda had these.  I think they’re most unusual.  It’s from the rhyme, “This little pig went to market, this little pig stayed home, this little pig ate roast beef, this little pig had none and this little pig cried ‘wee, wee, wee’ all the way home!”  I remember it from my childhood!

Melinda also had these towels made from a 1940′s pattern called “A Sweet Little Miss.”  It’s the basis for my Merry Margaret patterns.

Here’s a set of mine, where I drew Merry Margaret doing her chores.  I call the pattern All Week Long.

Here are some pretty flower pots with matching fabrics from Happy.

Tea pots seem to have been a popular motif.

Some in Redwork.

Some in pretty colors.

Some in Bluework.

Well, you get the idea!

These are cute with the kitty faces.

I loved these canisters.

Melinda made this for me several years ago.

This bluebird is adorable!

But I think the most unusual was these mushrooms!

For about 12 years now, I’ve been part of a Redwork group.  From time to time, we branch out from Redwork to other needlework styles.  Recently, we decided to start having themes for out meetings.  A recent theme was Tea Linens.  Everyone brought a pretty tea cup, Linda made scones and I made tea sandwiches. 

Show and tell is always the best part.  Here’s a vintage card table cloth that I picked up years ago for just a few dollars. 

And, of course, when you’re being served tea in bed on a tray, you must have a proper tray cover! Notice the little pocket for your napkin.

This is a pretty design with an interesting stitched edge.

Here’s a closer view.

Ethel made this pillow as a store sample for Anna Lena’s a few years back.  It’s a pattern from Darlene Zimmerman.

One of the ladies brought these pretty dishtowels.

And look at this pretty quilt.  I think Loretta made it. 

I love the delicate rose on the corner of this tea tablecloth.

These stitched tea towels are oldies but goodies.  Don’t you love how the thread color matches the bands on the towels?

The bias tape scalloped border on this cloth is really interesting.

The bias tape is checked!  How cool is that?

A few years back, our project was these blocks from Crabapple Hill Designs.  These are Eleanor’s–still waiting to be put together.

She’s a Red Rose tea drinker, so personalized her tea bag.  How clever!

Monica designed this setting for her blocks.  It is so very sweet–just like she is!

This is so pretty, but I can’t remember whose this is.  Oh, me bad!  Somebody, help!

Ethel made a tablecloth with her designs.

And I did a crazy quilt with my blocks.

Take a deep breath, grab a cup of coffee and sit easy–this is going to be a long post!

I got home at midnight last night from Quilt Market in Houston.  I had a fabulous time!  Here’s a recap of my days there.

I presented two talks at Schoolhouse.  One was one my new Redwork line and the other on a new Quilt Shop Program called Stash Pot Pie II

Karen Montgomery did a couple of Schoolhouses, too.  Here’s she’s showing her new fabric with Timeless Treasures.

Debbie Welsh (one of my two roomies) did two–Beginning Quilting by Machine and one on numbers–i.e. business stuff (eye’s glazing over here!)

Saturday morning, everyone was anxious to get in and see what was new!

Here’s my other roomie, Kris, hard at work ordering fabric.

Having fun at the Me and My Sister booth.

After a tough day on the Market floor!

Here’s how my quilts looked in the Timeless Treasures booth.

One year Houston had painted cows.  Now it’s painted globes.

Fun except for the 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity!

Not only do I have new Redwork Panels out at Market this week, I also have Bluework!  I’ve designed a panel with twelve flower basket blocks.

I only had one strike-off panel to work with and no time to get it embroidered as I was still stitching the At Play Panel.  Thanks to the ladies in my Redwork Club!  They came to my rescue.  Connie, Marla, Cortne` and Robin each took two blocks and stitched them for me.  And let me tell you, they do beautiful work!

There are six coordinating toiles to go with the baskets.  Just like the panel, we didn’t have yardage yet, just strike-offs–the little pieces we get from the mill to approve or deny.  I had less than a half yard of each.  In fact, I had to scrounge to find enough for the 3″ squares I needed so I could take this photo!

At first I thought I’d only be able to make a sample with four basket blocks, but in the end, I was able to squeeze out enough fabric for sashings and borders for six blocks.  It was rather interesting designing with such a limited amount of fabric.  I had to go scrappier than I normally would have, but I like the result.  It’s good to have to stretch once in awhile!

I stippled the sashings and borders and quilted a spider web in each basket block.  I was afraid it might detract from the embroidery stitching, but when it was finished I was pleased with the result.

I’m off to Quilt Market.  Yeah!  A time to catch up with old friends and see what’s new in the world of quilting.  Does it get any better than this?  I don’t think so!

I’m very excited about my new Redwork Panel called At Play.  Once again, I was inspired by a vintage quilt.

These kids just looked like they were having so much fun!  We added to it to make twelve blocks in the panel.  I wanted to get the blocks as large as possible, so instead of a 24″ repeat, I designed the panel to use the whole 26″ repeat.  Then, in order to get the blocks square, there was this odd bit of space left along the side.  I decided to make little blocks in the space and filled them with pinwheels!

I got busy and embroidered the sample panel I got, and made this quilt.  It will be hanging in the Timeless Treasures booth at Market.  It was so fun using the pinwheels as corner stones and centers for the nine-patches.  Here it is on my design wall before I quilted it.

I put it together with my toile fabrics.

Here’s a close-up of a block after quilting.  It’s always so hard to know how to quilt the embroidered blocks, especially when machine quilting.  As you can see, I opted for a simple diagonal line.  I stipples in the sashings and borders.

But wait–there’s more.  I also have a second, brand new Redwork Panel – Flower Baskets!  This fabric hasn’t arrived in the warehouse, but it will be here soon.

Recently I posted about a guild program we had on block exchanges.  After that great program our guild decided to do some, too.  Robin, you inspired us!  

Of course it was my idea, so I was put in charge.  I decided since this was new to all of us, we’d start out simple.  The rules were to make twenty-four 6″ nine-patch blocks from red and white fabrics.  Here are mine.  Of course I used fabric from my red and white toile line, Through My Window.

I put them up on my design wall like an Irish Chain.  I must admit that for years I didn’t know an Irish Chain was just nine-patch blocks and plain setting squares!  I actually think the Irish Chain is a very impressive quilt made from a very simple block.  (Yes, I know that there are more than 24 blocks here, but there were extra segments left from my strip sets, so I sewed them all up!)

I don’t know yet how I will put my final blocks together.  I’m excited to see the different reds and whites that everyone used.

I have a great book called 101 Nine-Patch Quilts by Marti Michell.  I’m sure I’ll find some inspiration in there.

Today was our Redwork Club meeting, and we started by going to tea at All The Tea and China.  

Then we came back here to Studio Anna Lena for our “meeting,” which is really just show-and-tell!  It’s always fun to see what others are working on!  Linda has taken my Through My Window panel and embroidered it.  Don’t you love how she’s doing one extra little thing on each block?

Loretta brought a completed quilt top that she started in 2006.  She wanted our opinion about the dark blue border.  Everyone thought it was too dark, so she bought some of my Cornflower solid to replace it.  It’s a much better match.

Here are some of my favorite blocks from her quilt.

Loretta says this is her stitching.  I hope those are pins in her mouth and not chin whiskers!

We share more than just stitchery.  Robin just finished hand quilting this vintage 1930′s top.  She’s a wonderful hand quilter, and this quilt was a challenge because it didn’t lay flat.  But look at it now!  Amazing.

And here’s something very special.  Linda bought this hand crocheted apron at a garage sale and brought it for show-and-tell.  Then she gave it to me!  Thank you, Linda.  You know it will have a special home here.  And it’s nice to know that someone years ago liked orange, too!

Yesterday was the drawing for the Red and White Delight quilt kit give-away.  

“blop” was the winner of the Quilt Kit!  I used a random number generator, and her number came up.  Congratulations.  I hope you enjoy the quilt.

We interrupt this Ohio adventure for a quilt kit give-away!

This Red and White Delight quilt is featured on the cover of Quilts and More–and it uses my fabric!  The quilt was designed by Maebeth Oxenreider, and the folks at Q&M were nice enough to let me offer kits for the quilt on my web site.  One cool thing that Q&M does is show fabric requirements and cutting instructions for lap, twin, queen and king sizes.  There’s even a pillowcase kit!  Here’s the queen size – photo courtesy of Meredith Corp.

So, I thought it would be fun to give away a kit for a lap sized quilt.  It finishes 42″ x 52.”  I’ll include the magazine, of course, so you’ll have the pattern.  This give away is worth $46.98.  All you have to do is leave a comment and on June 8, I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner.  Oh, and if you want a bigger size, you can apply the $$ toward a bigger one.  Hope you win!